A quest for the ultimate-ish webcam setup (formerly a FS post)

reopening this thread: we need a discussion on webcam life and how to level it up

 

I’m a MacBook user, but haven’t tried MacOS Ventura’s Continuity Camera yet. Has anyone tried this yet? I have an iPhone XR that I used to feed into my MacBook that beat anything short of dedicated camera with HDMI out. I’m going to try that and hope to report back with good news. On my old i9 MacBook, the CPU couldn’t keep up with feeding the iPhone into as a webcam, but this M1 Max on my new MacBook makes my old one feel like a Nokia 3310.

 

I recently put together a streaming setup for sharing video and audio in a noisy lab environment at work so that our remote folks can see well and hear well during during equipment development sessions. The set up works great in the lab, but wouldn't be 100% appropriate for at home streaming. However, I think some of my experience with this setup provides decent conversation here.

My set up consists of the following:

• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX0 II
• Rode VideoMic NTG Shotgun Mic
• INOGENI 4K HDMI to USB 3.0 Video Capture Card

The Sony camera is good, but has been a let down in some areas. My primary complaint is that the camera is unable to adjust focus when outputting over HDMI. The camera locks focus once you plug in an HDMI cable and the only way to adjust the focus is to unplug the HDMI cable. This camera also has a thermal shutoff limit, which I reach after five minutes of streaming. I had to disable the thermal protections on the camera to get it to perform basic functions. This camera's HDR function cannot compare to an iPhone's HDR capability. Even my iPhone XR's HDR beats this. However, in my lab, this camera has been performing well.

The Rode mic works great for my use case. I'm able to capture just what I want while keeping machine noise and side conversations out of my video feed. I tested this at home by mounting it on top of my monitor while dialing in some initial settings. Even though this mic isn't made for this use case, everyone on my calls asked what I did to my voice in the few days I tested it. It makes my $50 Fifine mic sound like trash. Now I need to find a new set up for home.

The Inogeni capture card has been amazing. It worked out of the box and hasn't missed a single beat and I haven't had to touch a single thing. It's expensive, but has delivered 100% of the time.

Testing it out before placing it in the lab:

 

I might try out the INOGENI!

I have been experimenting with a few setups, mostly RX1R II, ZV-1 and ZV-1F via an elgato camlink 4k. I have a blue yeti at home that has served me for the better part of a decade and an elgato wave:3 at work.

For $300 used, the ZV-1F is my pick. We’ll be using it as the main cam for webinars in the office for sure.